Day 15: Gardiner to Apgar

We had another long day of driving ahead of us today, with the plan being to travel from one side of Montana to the other. We were starting in Gardiner, which is in the very south of Montana, and driving up to a place called Apgar, which is at the entrance to Glacier National Park, right in the north of the state.

We checked out of the hotel in Apgar around 8am and hit the road. The countryside we travelled through was very mountainous, as we initially followed the route of the Yellowstone river towards Bozeman.

We reached Bozeman in around 90 minutes and stopped for breakfast. As we drove through the town centre we noticed that it looked surprisingly attractive, with some buildings that seemed quite historical.

As we rejoined the main road outside Bozeman, I couldn't help but laugh when we passed a road sign that pointed to an exit for places named Belgrade and Amsterdam.

The scenery after Bozeman continued to be mountainous ...

... and very green.

Somewhere around the state capital of Helena, we drove over a mountain pass where the views were really beautiful.

The landscape looked quite Alpine.

We drove past a small lake ...

... and towards a very steep mountain.

After that the route became gentler, leading us through endless forests ...

... until we reached the shores of a much bigger lake.

This was Swan Lake and it was really pretty

An hour or so after Swan Lake, we stopped for a late lunch at a branch of Applebee's in the small town of Kalispell, not far from the national park entrance. We both chose a chicken parmigiana dish which was so enormous that we could actually just have eaten one between us.

It was shortly after 18.00 when we eventually arrived at Apgar, which is just within the boundaries of Glacier National Park. We're staying in official national park accommodation tonight, which means the room is a bit smaller and more rustic than the hotels we've been in for the rest of the holidays. 

There's a very limited phone and WiFi signal, with which we're attempting to do this blog. But it's worth the slight inconvenience, because we've got this outside area with an absolutely incredible view.

Look at the view!

Our terrace looks out over Lake McDonald, one of the large lakes within the park.

I'm so glad that we are able to see the views here, because I've read some things online recently saying that visibility hasn't been great in Glacier due to the impact of wildfire smoke blowing over from Canada.

I think the impact changes with the weather and which way the wind is blowing, but there definitely didn't seem to be any problem with visibility this evening.

We'd had a long day of sitting down in the car, so we went for a walk to stretch our legs and try to see a bit more of the lake.

The trail led through the forest ...

... and then took us down to little beaches ....

... where we had the most incredible views.

It was worth coming to Glacier National Park just for this

So beautiful that it definitely required a selfie!

I could have stayed looking at the lake all day, but we also wanted to get back to the hotel and enjoy some time sitting outside on the terrace before it got too dark.

As we walked back through the woods, we saw a wonderful little deer.

This one was a lot smaller than the large elk we've been seeing in Yellowstone over the past few days.

We made it back to Apgar and sat outside, watching the colour of sunset on the lake.

We've stayed in some nice places over the past few years, but this has got to rank as one of the most scenic terrace views ever.

It was beautiful!

Tim walked down to the lake to get a close-up shot ...

... and the result was impressive

Then it was time to relax in a chair with our Kindles

It was another big day of driving!

Tomorrow we'll be driving through the park and ultimately staying overnight at a place called Many Glacier, which is deeper within the park. I'm anticipating that we won't have a phone signal or reliable WiFi, there, so there may be a delay on the next couple of blogs!